Italy: four regions become ‘red’

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte announces the division of Italy into three areas based on the spread of COVID-19 as required by the new Decree of the President of the Council of Ministers (Dpcm), which will come into force on the 6th of November, and defends the choice of government not to adopt a single measure throughout the country: ‘if we had done so we would have obtained a double negative effect, we will not have intervened with truly effective measures where there is a greater risk and we will have imposed unreasonably restrictive measures where the situation is less serious’.

From Friday, therefore, the measures will be operational: a 24-hour postponement with respect to government programs decided to allow all regions to have ‘the time to organize their activities’. But there will be no setbacks. Health Minister Roberto Speranza has already signed the ordinances with the latest monitoring data and the measures will remain in force, at least as regards the red areas, for at least two weeks.

The data relating to the Regions included in the yellow and orange zones will instead be updated every week and, in the event of deterioration, there will be an automatic transition to the highest range and the application of more restrictive measures.

‘We must necessarily intervene to slow down the circulation of the virus’ sais Conte illustrating the decree, since the health systems of ‘many regions risk suffering’ in the coming weeks. So the choices are obligatory: ‘we have no alternatives, we have to face these restrictions to cool the curve’.

In the red & yellow zones

The system of the provision is that contained in the drafts, with few adjustments: it gives hairdressers the opportunity to remain open even in the red areas and saves the cruises of ships flying the Italian flag. In the yellow zone where there are Abruzzo, Basilicata, Campania, Emilia Romagna, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Lazio, Liguria, Marche, Molise, Sardinia, Tuscany, Veneto, Umbria and the autonomous provinces of Trento and Bolzano - national measures will apply , from the curfew at 10pm to the closure of shopping centers on weekends, from the stop to exhibitions and museums to the closure of gaming and betting corners, from the reduction of capacity in local public transport to 100% distance education for high schools.

In the orange zone

In the ‘orange zone’, the one with a high risk, instead Puglia and Sicily end up: you cannot leave the region and travel between the municipalities is also forbidden, while bars and restaurants will remain closed all day. ‘It’s absurd and unreasonable’ says the Sicilian governor Nello Musumeci.

General lockdown, in fact, for the red regions

The general lockdown, in fact, is triggered instead for the four regions with the highest indices, those where the spread of the virus is out of control. In addition to the measures envisaged for the other areas, shops are also closed, except for food and pharmacies, and you can only go out for proven work, health, necessities and to take children to school.

‘Any movement at any time is forbidden’ explained Conte.

The criticism of the government

‘It’s a slap in the face for the Lombards, we don’t deserve it’ attacks the governor Attilio Fontana.

With the division into bands of the country, self-certification also returns: from Friday, both to circulate in the areas with the most severe restrictions and for the rest of Italy after 10 pm.

‘Differentiated and well targeted’ measures, as the premier said, which the governors have repeatedly criticized. ‘The government will assume the health and social responsibility consequent to its choices, always delayed and always fragmented’ thundered the president of Campania Vincenzo De Luca before knowing that his region would not end up in either the orange or the red zone.

The main criticism of the government from the presidents is also that of not involving the regions in the evaluations. Accusations that Conte has rejected. The ordinances are not based on arbitrary or discretionary decisions because they implement the weekly monitoring in which the Higher Institute of Health, the Ministry of Health and the representatives of the same territories participate. Therefore, claims Conte the Regions ‘are not an alter ego but an integral part of this monitoring’.

The premier also rejects any hypothesis of an agreement in the government to put the regions governed by the center-right in difficulty. ‘The criteria are predefined and objective and escape any bargaining, they are not negotiated on the skin of citizens’.